Nowadays being bilingual is an advantage. Many parents with different mother tongues want their children to speak both languages. In addition to academic and work advantages in the future, it has other benefits for children such as better cognitive abilities (attention, mental flexibility, memory ...), social, cultural ... If you are thinking about raising bilingual children we leave you some tips.
Bilingualism is the ability that some people have to be able to communicate interchangeably in several languages. Children are like sponges and exposing them from a very young age to two languages will help them learn them more easily. To be successful in this task we leave you some tips.
When should it start?
The sooner the better. It is not necessary to wait for the child to learn to speak to expose it to both languages, we can start from birth. Babies' brains are extremely plastic and when we start before, children will know the differences between the two languages even though they do not yet know how to speak them.
To achieve this, parents who want to do so must have a action plan to have good results.
What is the best action plan?
It must be clear that for a child to be bilingual, it is not enough to speak with the child in both languages. You have to do a total immersion in both languagesIn other words, you have to read, listen and speak in both languages to become a bilingual person. If they only listen to it, they probably won't learn to write it or have trouble expressing themselves. Study affirms that for children to learn two languages they should be exposed to them 20-30% of their time.
We will have read stories in both languages, talk to them a lot, watch pictures and movies in both languages, use the technologies and games where you can play with both languages and be very patient. That is to say, it is not only necessary to expose the child to those languages but also to make him interact with them.
The child may have a preference to speak in the language of the parent who spends the most time with them or in the language spoken in the country where they reside. The other language would be called a minority and the children would be less exposed to it due to the circumstances. Children have a limited time between their activities and sleep, so you have to take advantage of their time to expose them to both languages or increase the exposure time of the minority language so as not to lose it.
Agree
Parents will have to agree about what language they will speak to the children in case the parents speak different languages. They will be able to speak to each other in a language but with the child it is better for each one to choose a language. So the child reinforce your learning tol relate each language to one of the two.
The ideal would be reach an agreement before the birth to start when before with linguistic immersion and improve results.
What else can be done to make children bilingual?
You can travel whenever you can to the place of the minority language to make total immersions, that they know the country and practice the language. It is the best way to know the roots of your parents if they speak different languages, creating a connection with them. You can also take it to events in the minority language or where cultural subjects are taught.
Another idea is to take you to language schools or camps held in the minority language. Hiring a native-speaker babysitter can also be interesting for you to improve your communication skills.
The ideal is always to search activities, games and material where the child learns by playing, almost without realizing it. He will have it more internalized and it will be more natural for him to speak in both languages. It is hard work so that the child does not lose one of the two languages, but the effort will be well worth it.
Because remember… making your child bilingual is one of the best investments you can make for their future.